Myria:What does the difference between the fuels do to a gasoline car? Forgive my ignorance...

/not a car girl

You need the right fuel for the right car. For instance, 'Redbull' cars only run on regular Redbull, not that diet crap./Myria, pictured above....

CSB:One time the (ex)wife comes home and says "I put the wrong gas in my car!" Now I am thinking how much it's gonna cost me to clean the tank and engine of the diesel. I ask "What kind of gas did you put in there" '91' "Oh, really? Okay, just keep using 87 and don't use 91 any more" 'Why? What will happen?' "Your engine will explode if you do it again. Just use 87."

JacksonBryan:eKonk: I wouldn't expect this to be too big a deal for most cars. A bit more smoke/smell from the exhaust, sure. On the other hand, with all these new-fangled emissions controls and sensors, who knows what might happen to the cars down the road?

It's big enough deal that most cars will knock and stall. Depending on how much was mixed and it doesn't take much to alter gasoline.

Diesel is part of the kerosene world, like jet fuel (not AVgas), so it's flashpoint is much higher than gasoline.

Interesting, I suppose. The only time I've ever put diesel in a gasoline engine was in a 1950 chevy straight 6, and I had only used the diesel to free up some seized pistons. A lot of smoke, it smelled, but overall it wasn't much different from any other chevy from that era.